Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Conservatives are complaining that the reason liberals object to
Dubya's plans for New Orleans is that they're afraid a conservative
approach might succeed. In fact, conservative approaches have
succeeded in the past --- like section 8 housing vouchers and
the Earned Income Tax Credit. And when they do, liberals urge
their application, as they are doing right now, for New Orleans
evacuees. Dubya is resisting calls for that, apparently because
it might give people the idea that government programs can work.

Oh, by the way, remember Mike Brown, the FEMA head who got bounced
because of his agency's failure to handle Katrina? Who better to
investigate that failure than Brown himself? He's been rehired...
now why ever would that be?

His ostensible job? Trying to diagnose FEMA's failure,
which is to say, his own. But we already know what their diagnosis will be.
After Dubya's FEMA, and Brown's, not only failed to provide help on
its own, but actively repulsed aid offered from all quarters,
Dubya's crew is already using that failure as an argument, not that
we need better civilian leadership (perish the thought!), but rather
that they need to be able to more readily impose martial
law...